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Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama Declaring the Promotion of the Concept of the East Asian Community at His General-Policy Speech
26th October 2009 Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet Summary I have in recent days been engaged in a series of frank and sincere exchanges of views with the leaders of Asian countries. With regard to Japan's relations with neighboring countries such as the Republic of Korea, China, and the countries of Southeast Asia, we will build up relationships of real trust and advance cooperation by actively seeking out the points we share in common and cooperate while mutually respecting diverse values.The Asia-Pacific region has throughout its long history been continually beset by a large number of earthquakes, floods, and other natural disasters. Recently in response to the disaster caused by an earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, Japan's international disaster relief team arrived at the affected site earlier than other teams and contributed to the rescue operations and medical activities. I believe that in the future, it will become even more necessary to harness for the entire region Japan's world-leading disaster prevention technologies and knowledge and experience in disaster relief and reconstruction, as well as our extremely active volunteer network on disaster prevention and disaster countermeasures. The East Asia region still faces significant challenges in the areas of health and sanitation. In addition, the reinforcement of countermeasures against new infectious diseases including new influenza and other diseases has become a matter of urgency. The role for Japan to play is extremely important in this area as well, utilizing for example contributions from Japan's social system as a whole, including its medical technologies and its health centers. It is also important to step up cooperation and exchanges in the field of culture. Despite its mix of diverse cultures, East Asian countries enjoy a wealth of points in common, both historically and culturally. It is unnecessary for me to reiterate the degree to which a mutual deepening of understanding and affinity for others' cultures at the grass-roots level fosters relationships of trust among countries. This is the case even though arduous political or economic negotiations may be conducted, and despite the differences in our ideologies and our political systems that may exist. I believe that in the years to come, making cultural exchange activities among our citizens more active and deepening exchanges in the areas of educational, cultural, volunteer, and other transnational activities, particularly among the youth of the next generation, will prove very effective in order to intensify mutual relationships of trust within the East Asia region. I thus intend to take various steps including the significant expansion of both the hosting of international students in Japan and the number of Japanese studying abroad, greatly increasing the number of specialists in the various languages and cultures of the region, and also enhancing the system for interchangeably transferring university credits earned in Japan, China, and the Republic of Korea respectively. It is with a view to the long term that I will undertake these initiatives to foster the human resources who will sustain East Asian and Asia-Pacific cooperation thirty years hence. Beyond the fields of trade and economic partnerships, economic cooperation and the environment, as I have stated, I intend to amplify and enrich cooperation in the area of "people's lives and culture" as part of "an economy for the people" and promote the concept of an East Asian community as a highly transparent cooperative entity which is open to other regions.
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